Love and death: A story from The Kitsap Sun

It’s not often that a newspaper gets to publish a beautiful news story.

Nor is it often that Josh Farley gets to write one. On his beat, the Kitsap Sun’s cops and courts reporter tackles crime, lawlessness and death. But when Robert Moser and his wife, Darlene, appeared in the same obituary last week, Farley found himself writing about things like love, loyalty and life.

Robert, 84, and Darlene, 80, of Kingston, always said that when they’d die, they’d die together. On Jan. 23, after 62 years of marriage, they did. Darlene went first. Six hours later, Robert followed.

That’s only the end of the story. With the help and approval of the Moser family, whom he contacted after reading the obituary, Farley told much more in the Sunday edition of the Kitsap Sun.

If you haven’t read his story yet, do — but know it is by no means an dispassionate account (“I can barely type through my tears,” wrote one Sun reader). Today the piece is one of the most read articles on seattlepi.com.

“I kind of feel blessed as a reporter to have come upon something like this,” said Farley, who married his wife, Rosemary, last July.

“I told her, I sure hope this is how our marriage goes. I hope that we can go 62 years, just as they did. It would be so touching to be able to die with your loved one, right then, right there. It was neat to be able to share that with her.”